Christopher

Wrong time of year, but....
 
Someone was going over a passage that stated the "no white after Labor Day" rule was invented by the old money families to differentiate themselves from the nouveau riche.
 
Me: No white after Labor Day? What if I have to use my stormtrooper outfit?

Whether I wear slacks, khakis, or jeans to work isn't what makes me a professional. 
 
The fact that I can deal with rooms full of teenagers without resorting to defenestration is what makes me a professional.

The alien duo of Orange Spaz and Blue Dork are two self-proclaimed protectors of the planet Earth. Unfortunately, they don't know much about our planet and barely know our language. Their powers are standard super strength, durability, and flying.

Hey Mr Tangerine Man don't try to arrest me
I'm not wanted and there's no prison I'm going to
Hey Mr. Tangerine Man, don't try to arrest me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll stop stalkin' you

IMO, this picture is impossible to do seriously.  That said...
 
Tangerine Man and Blueberry Boy are members of the Fruit Loops.  (Not pictured are Lemon Lady, Lime Lad, Grape Girl, and their animal sidekick Pomegranate the Pomeranian.)  All have costumes that share the same sense of fashion, or lack thereof, and they each turn into their named color when activating their powers.  It is rumored that they are a family of supers, albeit ones that are apparently touched in the head since all seem rather simple-minded.  They claim to have gotten their powers from eating radioactive fruits.  As to their powers:
Tangerine Man has stretching powers Lemon Lady is a telekinetic and low-level mentalist Blueberry Boy can turn into a round, super-resilient strongman who can bounce great distances Lime Lad can project green force beams (from his eyes to do damage, and from his hands and feet to fly) Grape Girl, also known as the Violet Blur, is a speedster Pomegranate has a powerful sonic bark, and can fly (I apologize for adding members beyond those pictured, but once I threw in Fruit Loops, I just had to include all the colors in Froot Loops cereal.)

At first I thought it was a typo and he meant 60 STR, but then that didn't work out either.  Nor did 30 DEX using NCM.
 
The point is still reasonably made though.  If a guy spends 50 points on X instead of 50 points on Y - Does it really break game balance?
 
My general thought - Yes.  Some stat ranges - depending on the campaign - can absolutely obliterate any sense of balance at the gaming table.
 
Keeping a group of players happy with game balance requires that both the reality of the balance and the perception of the balance be in a good place. 
Each Hero must feel like their particular strengths and skills are just as important to the groups success as those of the other players.
 
If StatMan does double the damage of his counter-parts while being nigh invulnerable and faster to boot then it will be difficult to keep SkillMonkey and MagicMarven happy unless the campaign throws obstacles that favor their abilities over the raw combat power of StatMan fairly often.
 
In my Fantasy Hero campaign I set hard caps on primary stats at 15 and - at their current power levels - my players can have two stats in the 16-20 range or one stat in the 21-23 range.  As the campaign progresses I'll raise the caps until it's just the standard NCM.
So far so good.  Everyone has found their niche.  We have crowd control elemental martial arts guy, spirit shaman brick guy, melt-your-face-magic-lady (my wife) and a guy playing a recreation of the Witcher.
 

I like Boss battles. Why? Because as a GM it’s way easier to have one character to run than a team.  

The most AP intensive Melee weapon for Fanatasy settings I could find was the Great Axe, at 54 AP.
So PD/ED should be 11 (54/5 = 11)
There is no body defined, but Object Creation demands body to be bought within Defenses/2. With the lack of granularity, 8 is the target.
 
So here is my math on Object creation, 1 Minute Time Limit:
Object Creation: 20
Complexity: Most melee and Ranged Weapons are covered by the baseline. However Crossbows might require the +10 "Complex Object" Modifier
Buy Defenses from 2 to 11: 9x3 = +27
Buy Body from 2 to 8 to match Defenses: +6
Every Doubling (from 1 object): +5; However I doubt we need doublings nessesarily. You can just spend several half-phases creating weapons
 
For the Duration, Object Creation has a custom Limitation "Limited Lifespan". It happens to end at -2, same value as time 1 Minute Time Limit
Additional Limitation "Limited Objects" Might be applicable. But even just having the Option to Create Weapons with this power might negate that.
 
Object Creation:
Base Cost: 53 Base
Advantages: None
Limitations: 1 Minute Duration or Limited Lifespan (1 Minute) (-2)
Real Cost: 18 Character Points
 
 

One rules system is stumbeled over is "Open Legends", wich is a OpenSoruce RPG.
I noticed the similarity to HERO instantly. It might even be a suiteable demo/learning tool for the HERO system.
It does have a whole lot less granularity then hero.
 
I really need to finish writing about it in the General Rolepalying Forum so you can see what I mean.

The big difference here is that the GM has the ability to rein in any use of wealth by quoting the availability of materials, weaponsmiths or just permission to make such things and equip them to malcontents.  ?  A magical ability has no such limitations and should therefore be more costly.
 
Doc

But, would that not be the same thing as comitting suicide? I mean she knows she is in some of those!

So this was moved from Rules Questions to Hero System, so I guess participation is wanted.
 
One cheaper way to buff PRE attacks would be "Striking Appereance".
While originally defined as "Pretty" or "Ugly", I simply view it as limited presence. So it could be used for "Intimidating Presence" just as well.

'Frosty had the last laugh': Vandal tries to run over giant snowman, hits tree stump instead

I only learned of this recently, but it makes perfect sense now.
"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
Douglas Adams
 
And I think we can expand that to any change, including laws, the emergence of supers, etc.

I only learned of this recently, but it makes perfect sense now.
"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
Douglas Adams
 
And I think we can expand that to any change, including laws, the emergence of supers, etc.

Actually, it's tattoo work (nails).  The artist also works on nipples for breast cancer patients as well.

Two players are riding divine winged horses to the moon and encounter one of the dragon riders of Ka'ruk en route.
 
Bill, playing Stoddard the Barbarian: "Is it possible for you to be stealthy and we can sneak up on the dragon?"
 
WInged Horse: "We are living symbols of divine inspiration. We are not sneaky, we are glorious."
 
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary says it was something like that
 

Ah, I found the rules. APG I 16 has this:
" Some campaigns, such as many Fantasy Hero
and Star Hero games, feature multiple sentient
species or races. Some GMs like to vary the Characteristic Maxima for different races. Tis allows
some races to buy Characteristics to a higher limit
without doubling the cost, or lowers the doubling
threshold to make it harder for some races to
increase their Characteristics. For example, maybe
dwarves can have CON up to 23 and elves can
have INT up to 23 before the doubling takes effect,
but elves can only have CON 16 before doubling
sets in.
Since there’s no guarantee how many points
each character will spend on each Characteristic,
there’s no way to create a uniformly balanced
method of applying this sort of change. Many
GMs try to “balance” the effect by imposing an
equal amount of “upgrades” and “downgrades”
to each race, or by applying downgrades in some
other proportion to upgrades. For example, if
elves can have up to INT 23 without doubling (a
possible savings of 3 points), then perhaps they
can only have STR 17 before doubling (a possible
extra cost of 3 points)
"
 
But basically it is what we discussed already.

So now we got half the parts for a von-Neuman machine.

Cast:
Jotunn Ironbeart; Dwarven Marine
Ilumaris of House Silverness; Elvish mage taught in Altdorf.
Don Philipe [add 4 more names I forgdt]; Estalian Diestory (think Spanish Fencer and minor Nobility)
Ralf Bloem; Manaan Priest from Marienburg 
 
Prince Arathion, House Emerald Sea; NPC. Elven mage, prince, explorer and oru contractor
 
When last we talked about our heroes, they had just left a world. But before leaving they had a encoutner of the bad kind.
 
See within the party, there was a certain room. On the door, there were a bunch of Symbols with one standing oddly out. The inside of the room was enticing for more revelry. The kind of enticing that needs a Willpower throw to resist. The symbol in this far off world, in the middle of a orgy, belonged to him. While literally everyone failed the check to see if they knew the Symbol, it did not put our team at ease. Even long after we had returned to the Warhammer world, it was goign through our Diestros head.
And it does not help the the player is also a bit oblivious to the rules of the Warhammer wolrd
 
Don Philipe (OOC): I go to the local University
Scholar: Good day Sir. How can I help you?
Don Philipe: I was wondering if you knew this Symbol
Scholar: *Distressed* No sir, I would not know of such a symbol
Don Philipe: How would know? It is rather important
Scholar: Well, you could ask Dr. Satre about it. if it is really important to you.
 
And yes he goes there. After explaining it where he saw the symbol to Dr. Satre, that one puts on his hat. His pointy hat. His Witchhunter Hat.
Jotunn OOC: Did you seriously just call a Witchunters atention onto us?
Ilumaris OOC: You know you could have just asked Arrathion, right?
Don Philie OOC: Oh. My bad.
All: ?
GM: I think this is a good time for a cut.
Don Philipe OOC: I guess now is a bad time to mention that I will not be here the next session?
 

One of the players in Sunday's D&D game was not able to attend.  The prior session, her character got engaged to an NPC, with a wedding planned basically the next game session.  Since she wasn't able to attend, we delayed the wedding, though texts went back and forth:
 
GM:  We could have your wedding and the groom would get to make all the decisions.
Player:  Oh, I don't think so.
Me:  Two words:  Nude wedding.
Player:  Umm, I have no response to that.
Player 2:  For everyone, or just the people getting married?!
Me:  Well, Raphael [my character, a vain, flirty high-Charisma paladin] would be good with everybody.
Player 3:  Absolutely.  Good heroes like us have nothing to hide.
Player 2:  Oh my!
 
During the game, some more texting to and from the missing player:
 
Me:  The bride was very lovely in her lace veil... and nothing else.  The groom had a very fetching bow, strategically placed.
Player:  Ugh.  I'm at work.  Quit bothering me.
 
In prior sessions, our female fighter (Marie, who used to wield a +2 great sword) got an intelligent, powerful spear with additional cold powers, so she sold her great sword and used the money to buy some magic plate mail.  Later on, she got transformed - the spear disappeared and she became able to generate an ice spear at will.  However, due to other baggage she didn't like her transformation so we managed to get her changed back to normal.  However, she now has no weapon.
 
Marie:   Does anyone have a great sword I can use?
Raphael:  I do.  (wiggles eyes suggestively)  You know why I call it my "great sword"?  Because I have to wield it two-handed...
Marie:  ??

In our version of the adventure, my Character, a super High Charisma Dragon Disciple (Bronze), Flirted shamelessly with the young Crystal Dragon for about a half hour, much to the amusement and cat calls from the other players, and got the Crystal, by basically buying it off of her (He's rich).  Now that he can BE a dragon, he can't return, but won't, as he is now betrothed to another...  *sniff* She was so pretty, though.

That makes her at tops a Catwoman on the Hero/Villian Scale. A early one that never had joined with the Birds of Prey or similar Vigilantee Groups.
 
IIRC Caliburn was about as ambigious on the Hero/Villain scale as DC's John Constantine.
The guy was the sometimes lover of Zatana, a Cities Avatar and propably the odd demon/spirit/whatever that looked halfway attractive at the time. If you are doomed to eternal torment, no reason to not take up any option that comes your way.
 
Let us just sum it up as:
She is a Villain
He is a Hero
It is complicated.

Wait, did you just say "Steam-powered spaceship"?

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series on Hulu.
 
The Emperor's New Groove on Netflix.